Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Flat

Son comes home, walks through the garage and notices that my car has a flat tire. Like the good son that he is he says for me not to worry about it and that he'll take care of it. Whew! What a relief to have a capable son.

Son removes tire and loads it into his car and takes it to get repaired. He returns with the fixed tire and puts it back onto my car.

Son shows me what caused the flat. A little metal thingy between 1/16" and 1/32" in width by 1/2" long. I took a picture of it with a penny for comparison.

The damage.

Now, I know that it costs an arm and a leg and perhaps a little more than that to live in Hawaii. Yes, the cost of living is outrageous. But! Forty dollars to fix a flat tire? This got me thinking. How much does it cost to fix a flat in your area? More? Less? I thought that it would be interesting to know what it costs where you live, whether you're on the U.S. mainland or somewhere else in the world. Maybe I don't have anything to complain about. My inquisitive mind would like to know.

Some places will provide free flat repair if the tires are theirs (were bought from them). More often, $10-20 sounds about right. One time we had a place to it for free, then told us to come to him to get our tires next time. Unfortunately, his business has moved before we could return the favor. [Tacoma, WA]

We feel we have found an honest mechanic, which is hard to do nowadays,that we use when needed. Pop has always done his own mechanic work, but with his age now, he must depend on others to do the work.Pop says our mechanic would charge roughly $10.We are in rural Kentucky,USA.

HiIn Sweden it costs about the same, 300 kr = 38 dollars. So in that case it´s expensive to live here as well.But be glad that it was only a flat tire. I got my first speeding ticket, fot that I paid 200 dollars:(

Wow! Where I live, we can get flats fixed for free. Supposedly you should have purchased the tire there, but usually they just do it for free, regardless. And I'm doubly lucky because my son is a mechanic, and the few times I've needed to be towed, even THAT was way cheap because he's "got connections." There IS a down side, though...my car is always the LAST one to get worked on (shoemaker's children syndrome) :-)

Don't complain! A flat tire: €35, gas to put IN the car €1,50 a liter. Quilting fabric: approx. €15 to € 20 a metre (little more than a yard) One U.S. dollar is 0.71 euro cents. I live in the Netherlands and when we see on tv e.g U.S citizens complain about gasprizes, we laugh. Hard!

DH just did this for me last week. Here in a small town on the central coast where the gas is higher, the same gas station charged us $15.$40 seems like alot but I guess that is how it goes with the local cost of living. I'm sure you are as grateful as I was that the men in our lives noticed it while it was in the garage. Boy, did I feel blessed!

My daughter recently woke to a flat tire. Her brother took the tire off and when she got out of work, they went to get it fixed. She picked up a nail (apt people are doing work around the grounds of her apt). cost her $12 to put a plug in. Guy said it may have a slow leak....they were brand new tires...so far that plug is holding!

40 is high even for Hawaii, for the US anyway. I usually get it free and am always surprised by that. But inevitably the flat is caused by something hitting the sidewall which means the whole tire is replaced.Yes our Petrol/gas is cheap in comparison to Europe, but in comparison to places in South America like Venezuela it is outrageously high. It all depends on where you live and your local economy.

Hi Lettie, it's great to have men in our lives! My capable husband would have done the same. I'm not sure about the price of a flat, but I can tell you that 12% tax would be added here! Yup, today Canada Day, we also celebrate a tax that adds another 7% to most goods and all services....yuck. But come to British Columbia, it's beautiful and ....apparently we need the tax money!

Oh and come to think of it, the last time I got a flat was when I hit a curb. Blew the side wall open (big bang) and had to buy TWO new tires....that cost some bucks. that was after waiting for an hour for BCAA to rescue me and put on my spare.

hmm - a couple options. If you go back to the place where you bought the tires, they will usually plug it for free. A patch would cost more, but is not as tpically needed. I've even gone to my car dealer and they plugged a hole for free too!

I am a little late to this party - but wanted to chime in here. Raised with a grease monkey - my dad made sure I knew how to take care of my car. You can purchase a tire repair kit for less than $20, in Tennessee, and fix more flats than you'll ever see in your lifetime. It's relatively easy to do and you'll never have to pay someone to fix your tires again. If you do this - be sure to get the good kit with the nice handles, not the cheap plastic ones that pull off when you are pulling the plug through the tire.

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